Help Chris Squire Recover From A Medical Emergency

On Monday, June 3, my dear friend, Chris Squire, was badly injured as a result of a missing manhole cover. He broke several bones in his ankle and requires surgery to repair all of the damage.

That's bad enough, but the worse part is that he works as a restaurant server to keep a roof over his head, and will be unable to work for several weeks to months while he recuperates.

That sucks, right? But, I hear you asking yourself, why should you care? Bad things happen to good people everyday. Why should this story matter more to you?

And that's simple. If, in the last 40+ years, you've listened to nasty punk or raw hardcore, garage rock, metal, weird psych, you've probably heard Squire somewhere. He formed the Tori Cobras, was in Mach 5 Overdrive, Heroin, tiltWheel, Digital Leather, Tit Wrench, Battalion Of Saints, and too many more bands to list. And it isn't just San Diego bands. Squire was in multiple bands from the northwest to northeast, New Orleans, and now he's in Rabid City from Baltimore, which is an incredible band you should check out.

Whenever Squire moves into a town, he takes time to get the lay of the land, learn who's who and what's happening, where the cool venues are, and so on. He starts meeting people, finding like-minded musicians to play with, places that will let bands record while they're closed during the day, etc. Sometimes, he sets up in a storage unit and starts recording. Sometimes he starts a label. Regardless, he starts working with people to start adding to what's going on wherever he finds himself, and if that stuff doesn't exist, he starts creating it.

Squire's the kind of guy who records bands for free, or a burrito. He's the kind of friend who would give that burrito to someone he knew hasn't eaten today. And I can say this because in 2002, I was that guy and Squire had me covered. My neighbor was dying from AIDS, and Squire had him covered too. I've personally seen him feed broke bands that he didn't know, just because he knows what that feeling is like.

Squire has, in short, been there for The Scene and people in it, and adjacent to it, and people who just needed a hand regardless of whether they were in the scene, over and over and over and over and over in the 30-odd years I've known him. And he's always been there for me, just like he's always been there for the rest of his friends. And even though money is tight because I'm disabled, I'll be kicking in some cash to help lift him up too. Squire has always been there for me, and for a lot of us. Now it's our turn to show up for him.

--Puckett